U.S. Navy NWTT Draft EIS/OEIS, public comment due by March 25, 2014.The U.S. Navy plans to expand its warfare testing, bomb blasts, sonar, and other warfare experiments in our range from Northern California to Alaska. Their NWTT Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS/OEIS), is online at http://nwtteis.com

~~~~~The maps (below) are what are important to the discussion because they show that the U.S. Navy has expanded their warfare testing ranges without protecting, in any reasonable way the following:

In a letter to NOAA, dated June 19, 2009, several U.S. Senators, including U.S. Senator Feinstein and U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman, stated: “…In many regions, the Navy plans to increase the number of its exercises or expand the areas in which they may occur, and virtually every coastal state will be affected. Some exercises may occur in the nation’s most biologically sensitive marine habitats, including National Marine Sanctuaries and breeding habitat for the endangered North Atlantic right whale. In all, the Navy anticipates more than 2.3 million takes (significant disruptions in marine mammal foraging, breeding, and other essential behaviors) per year, or 11.7 million takes over the course of a five-year permit…”

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Meteors. Supervolcanoes. Man. Throughout history, there have been few things with the capability to destroy planet Earth as mankind. In our earliest days, we were children of Mother Nature, but as time went on, we became more sophisticated, and found ways to live beyond our environment. This new, industrialized era left untold damage on environments around the globe, and it is only in the most recent years that we have acknowledged our impact on the planet and taken action. While we’ve made progress, there is much to undo. But pollution, deforestation, and over-fishing aside, are there other dangers, ones that don’t leave an oil slick or other obvious evidence of destruction?

This week on One Cell One Light Radio, Dr. Hildy welcomes returning guest Rosalind Peterson, California President and Co-Founder of the Agriculture Defense Coalition (ADC), to discuss the effect that naval SONAR devices are having on marine animals.

In 2008, one hundred melon-headed whales were mysterious stranded in a shallow Madagascar lagoon. This incident set off a rapid international response — a few of the eight- to 10-foot marine mammals were rescued, necropsies conducted, a review panel formed. Scientists found that the whales weren’t following prey into the lagoon. Instead, the whales were confused by a high-powered, “multi-beam echosounder system” (MBES) being used by an Exxon/Mobil contractor, who was using the SONAR to map the ocean’s floor.

The US Navy is also guilty of affecting sealife. Last year, a federal judge in California sided with environmental groups in their lawsuit against the U.S. government over Navy training exercises off the West Coast involving sonar that they said harms endangered whales, dolphins and other protected marine mammals. Other environmental groups are skirmishing with energy companies over the use of “seismic air guns,” devices that send much louder blasts of compressed air toward the ocean floor to help find oil and gas trapped below.

Join Dr. Hildy and her guest this week as they discuss the threat that modern oceanography and Navy Warfare Training has on the animals of the sea on One Cell OneLight Radio!

U.S. Navy Requests for Letters of Authorization to “Take” marine mammals listed by application date and range location. Definition of “Take” Defined under the ESA as “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.”

Requesting an extension of two U.S. Navy Warfare Public Comment deadlines:1) One is for the U.S. Navy NWTT Draft EIS/OEIS, public comment due by March 25, 2014. The U.S. Navy plans to expand its warfare testing, bomb blasts, sonar, and other warfare experiments in our range from Northern California to Alaska. Their NWTT Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS/OEIS), is online at http://nwtteis.com

2) We are also requesting an extension of the Public Comment Deadline for the U.S. Navy application to NOAA/National Marine Fisheries Service for a permit to “Take” or harm marine mammals in the NWTT Range: Northern California, Oregon, Washing, Idaho & Alaska. The Public Comment Deadline is: February 28, 2014.